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Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Letter to editor: Melissa Cockroft

Last Updated on 19 February 2013

By Melissa Cockroft

Dear editor,

Valentine’s Day 2013 again saw debate rage in the
media about the negative influence of “Western culture”, the importance
of Cambodian women maintaining their virginity and the subsequent
actions by local authorities.

In regard to the issue of culture, when asked what their plans were
to celebrate the day, young people seemed quick to comment: “It’s not
our tradition”; “It’s not related to Cambodian culture at all” (Lift,
February 13).

But whether Cambodians like it or not, Valentine’s Day is becoming a
part of Cambodian culture, and the way it is currently interpreted – as
the day to lose your virginity - is a uniquely Cambodian cultural
creation.

A simple internet search will show that the origins of Valentine’s
Day, although European, were not specifically related to sex or losing
one’s virginity.

In “Western” culture, which is typically blamed for Valentine’s Day’s
“scourge” on Cambodian society, the day has largely been taken over by
marketing and advertising agencies as a day for sharing “romance” with
your loved one(s) through hallmark cards, chocolates, flowers and
candle-lit dinners for two that, in turn, may lead to sex, but is not
the essence of the day as it seems to be re-interpreted in Cambodia.

While the almost universal disregard for the possibility that Valentine’s Day, as currently celebrated in Cambodia, could be anything but “Cambodian” is frustrating, what is more worrying is the response by local authorities.

Reports of municipal police and local authorities staking out
guesthouses and patrolling the streets for “young lovers” is an
infringement of individual rights to mobility and sexual autonomy.

​As experience with groups such as sex workers in Cambodia has shown,
policing and “crackdowns” on perceived anti-social behaviour merely
pushes the behaviour underground, creating an environment in which risky
sexual behaviour, exposure to sexually transmitted infections,
HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, abortion and exposure to violence are more
likely to occur.

As a result of these lessons learned, the Cambodian Ministry of
Health and local authorities have adopted a harm-reduction approach
through education and health-care provision, which has been more
effective in halting the spread of HIV/AIDS than arrests and harassment.

A similar harm-reduction approach whereby providing young people with
access to information, contraception and youth-friendly healthcare
services would be far more effective at minimising potentially risky
behaviour than stationing commune officials outside guesthouses.

Finally, as Keo Kounila’s excellent article “How the Kingdom could
show more love” (Phnom Penh Post 7Days, February 15) accurately pointed
out, young people are engaging in sex, not only on Valentine’s Day but
on every other day of the year too.

Although the Ministry of Education and others encouraged women to
“not give away their virginity”, young men’s involvement was almost
completely ignored.

The few times men did appear, it was usually as a warning for young
women through simplistic examples such as “Dara”, whose voice alone
causes women to give in to his sexual advances (“Dara and his many
girlfriends”, Lift, February13) .

While not denying that cases such as these exist, focusing on the
worst characters of society denies the existence of more positive role
models and examples of loving, healthy sexual relationships.

Although the role of young men in Cambodian society needs to be
further highlighted, the role of young women’s agency, rather than
vulnerability, also needs to be emphasized.

It needs to be acknowledged that the decision to have sex doesn’t
just occur because it’s Valentine’s Day, but is a part of often-complex
human relationships.

It’s important that we empower young women and men with the tools and
knowledge to protect themselves from both potentially harmful sexually
transmitted diseases and the effects of unintended pregnancy, but also
with the emotional maturity to know when they’re ready to have sex and
be able to refuse sex when they feel they’re not.

It’s also time to acknowledge that young Cambodian men and women are
having sex, and that this is a normal, healthy expression of female and
male sexuality, not an imposed Western construct.

Instead of encouraging young women to remain chaste, the Ministry of
Education would be better off focusing their efforts on developing a
curriculum that provides comprehensive sexual and reproductive health
information and to establish the foundation for building caring sexual
relationships.

As for the Phnom Penh municipal police and local authorities, they
would be better placed focusing their efforts on patrolling the streets
for real acts of crime, not the act of sex.